August 2025 Exhibit
INEXTINGUISHABLE
M.J. Anderson
We are excited to welcome back the inimitable M.J. Anderson for her fourth solo exhibition, INEXTINGUISHABLE, at Imogen and opening in conjunction with Astoria Artwalk, Saturday, August 9th. Known as a dynamic powerhouse, Anderson has been sculpting marble for over 40 years, working from two studios, one here on the North Coast of Oregon (Nehalem) and the other in Carrara, Italy near the quarries where she quite often sources her marble. For this series, she focuses on the metaphor of flame. Her work, through her own voice and experience, brings the storyline of history, echoing the past, present and future. This special exhibition is part memoir, part rallying-cry, and part anthropology of the human soul. M.J. will be present and available to answer questions about her work and career from 5 – 8 pm during the artwalk. The exhibition will remain on view through September 8.
M.J. Anderson has cultivated a long and fascinating career, balancing a professional life that connects the Mediterranean to the Pacific Northwest. Her work exudes the romance and history of the Mediterranean while offering the allure and mystery of the rugged Pacific Northwest. Regarded as one of the Northwest’s most important sculptors, for this exhibition she brings marble of all types, focusing on the iconic importance of fire through history, including several of her coveted torsos, emulating mankind’s connection to flame. Beyond the monumental scope of this exhibition, it is a powerful example of color, texture, form and metaphor.
Her epic work in stone is a testimony to an ancient process of geological wonder, carefully coaxed into sublime form, by the hand and eye of the artist. Each piece brought painstakingly to a sensual tactile surface, through countless hours of carving and polishing, still holding the eons of history from origin. Her process from procuring her medium to finished work is not a simple one. Once stone has been selected from the quarry, work begins in her Italian studio, roughing out pieces to begin the process of revealing the beauty of form within, prior to being shipped to her studio in Nehalem where the real work begins.
About this powerful series she states: “Flames bring an inexhaustible fountain of metaphor and historical reference to how we evolve as a species. From age-old gatherings around the warmth of fire, flames have been the center of our life on the planet. A few torsos in the show are inspired by Saint and brave feminist Joan of Arc (who was vilified by the same powers whom her army saved) while other abstracted flame forms are symbolic of creative energies and passions. I have created a series of sculpture which reference a final test, as Dante (Purgatorio) must penetrate the wall of flames of purification to arrive in Seventh Heaven. My work is about the metaphoric flame which burns in each of us ---and the responsibility for each of us to keep that flame alive.”
In the essay, “The Scars that Give a Stone its Soul: M.J. Anderson ‘s Ineffable Beauties” by art critic, curator and author, Richard Speer, he writes:
“Inhabiting a physical and psychological space midway between the Mediterranean Sea and Pacific Ocean—the conceit undergirding her has inevitably imparted an ambidexterity to Anderson’s aesthetic orientation. She floats across paradigms. Although attuned to the figurative, biomorphic, and abstract work of 20th Century icons like Brancusi, Moore, and Noguchi, she has been more directly influenced by medieval altarpieces, Käthe Kollwitz, and Manuel Neri. These disparate influences, folded into her own lived experience, guided her to the lodestar of her own practice: a never-ceasing quest to capture the ineffable. Her finished sculptures testify to the ways in which an intuitive and restlessly inventive artist can part the veils that divide the material world from the metaphysical. The sculptures are exquisite objects d’art but also emblems, signifiers, and most enigmatically of all, presences.”
Anderson, who began her career as a textile artist always held a love of stone and all things Italian. Her first visit to Italy was in 1974 and ten years later establishing her studio in Carrara. When discussing her choice of stone as vehicle of expression she says, “Marble was once alive. Marble was made from dying coral reefs and sea life billions of years ago. It was compressed and transformed by incredible heat, then lifted up into mountains by the forces of geology…some stones have smells, so when I’m sculpting, I’m handling and smelling something that once was alive.” This sense of vitality carries over into her finished forms.
Anderson has been exhibiting her work extensively throughout the Northwest and abroad since the mid 1990’s. Her work is included to the permanent collection of the Portland Art Museum, Hallie Ford Museum, Salem, OR Ceasar’s Palace, Las Vegas and the Maroochydore Bushland Botanic Gardens & Noosa Botanic Gardens, QLD, Australia. She has been the recipient of a Pollack-Krasner Foundation Grant, a two-month Fellowship Award in Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy through the Northwest Institute of Architecture & Urban Studies in Italy, the recipient of a career grant through the Oregon Arts Commission and the Ford Family Foundation. Anderson also gratefully acknowledges receiving funds from The Artist Relief fund, administered by the Oregon Arts Commission in partnership with the Oregon Community Foundation and the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation.
INEXTINGUISHABLE
M.J. Anderson
We are excited to welcome back the inimitable M.J. Anderson for her fourth solo exhibition, INEXTINGUISHABLE, at Imogen and opening in conjunction with Astoria Artwalk, Saturday, August 9th. Known as a dynamic powerhouse, Anderson has been sculpting marble for over 40 years, working from two studios, one here on the North Coast of Oregon (Nehalem) and the other in Carrara, Italy near the quarries where she quite often sources her marble. For this series, she focuses on the metaphor of flame. Her work, through her own voice and experience, brings the storyline of history, echoing the past, present and future. This special exhibition is part memoir, part rallying-cry, and part anthropology of the human soul. M.J. will be present and available to answer questions about her work and career from 5 – 8 pm during the artwalk. The exhibition will remain on view through September 8.
M.J. Anderson has cultivated a long and fascinating career, balancing a professional life that connects the Mediterranean to the Pacific Northwest. Her work exudes the romance and history of the Mediterranean while offering the allure and mystery of the rugged Pacific Northwest. Regarded as one of the Northwest’s most important sculptors, for this exhibition she brings marble of all types, focusing on the iconic importance of fire through history, including several of her coveted torsos, emulating mankind’s connection to flame. Beyond the monumental scope of this exhibition, it is a powerful example of color, texture, form and metaphor.
Her epic work in stone is a testimony to an ancient process of geological wonder, carefully coaxed into sublime form, by the hand and eye of the artist. Each piece brought painstakingly to a sensual tactile surface, through countless hours of carving and polishing, still holding the eons of history from origin. Her process from procuring her medium to finished work is not a simple one. Once stone has been selected from the quarry, work begins in her Italian studio, roughing out pieces to begin the process of revealing the beauty of form within, prior to being shipped to her studio in Nehalem where the real work begins.
About this powerful series she states: “Flames bring an inexhaustible fountain of metaphor and historical reference to how we evolve as a species. From age-old gatherings around the warmth of fire, flames have been the center of our life on the planet. A few torsos in the show are inspired by Saint and brave feminist Joan of Arc (who was vilified by the same powers whom her army saved) while other abstracted flame forms are symbolic of creative energies and passions. I have created a series of sculpture which reference a final test, as Dante (Purgatorio) must penetrate the wall of flames of purification to arrive in Seventh Heaven. My work is about the metaphoric flame which burns in each of us ---and the responsibility for each of us to keep that flame alive.”
In the essay, “The Scars that Give a Stone its Soul: M.J. Anderson ‘s Ineffable Beauties” by art critic, curator and author, Richard Speer, he writes:
“Inhabiting a physical and psychological space midway between the Mediterranean Sea and Pacific Ocean—the conceit undergirding her has inevitably imparted an ambidexterity to Anderson’s aesthetic orientation. She floats across paradigms. Although attuned to the figurative, biomorphic, and abstract work of 20th Century icons like Brancusi, Moore, and Noguchi, she has been more directly influenced by medieval altarpieces, Käthe Kollwitz, and Manuel Neri. These disparate influences, folded into her own lived experience, guided her to the lodestar of her own practice: a never-ceasing quest to capture the ineffable. Her finished sculptures testify to the ways in which an intuitive and restlessly inventive artist can part the veils that divide the material world from the metaphysical. The sculptures are exquisite objects d’art but also emblems, signifiers, and most enigmatically of all, presences.”
Anderson, who began her career as a textile artist always held a love of stone and all things Italian. Her first visit to Italy was in 1974 and ten years later establishing her studio in Carrara. When discussing her choice of stone as vehicle of expression she says, “Marble was once alive. Marble was made from dying coral reefs and sea life billions of years ago. It was compressed and transformed by incredible heat, then lifted up into mountains by the forces of geology…some stones have smells, so when I’m sculpting, I’m handling and smelling something that once was alive.” This sense of vitality carries over into her finished forms.
Anderson has been exhibiting her work extensively throughout the Northwest and abroad since the mid 1990’s. Her work is included to the permanent collection of the Portland Art Museum, Hallie Ford Museum, Salem, OR Ceasar’s Palace, Las Vegas and the Maroochydore Bushland Botanic Gardens & Noosa Botanic Gardens, QLD, Australia. She has been the recipient of a Pollack-Krasner Foundation Grant, a two-month Fellowship Award in Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy through the Northwest Institute of Architecture & Urban Studies in Italy, the recipient of a career grant through the Oregon Arts Commission and the Ford Family Foundation. Anderson also gratefully acknowledges receiving funds from The Artist Relief fund, administered by the Oregon Arts Commission in partnership with the Oregon Community Foundation and the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation.
July 2025 Exhibit
what is earth but a home
New Paintings by Bethany Rowland
For July we are proud to be presenting a new series of paintings by Bethany Rowland who returns to Imogen Gallery for her seventh solo exhibition, “what is earth but a home.” Known for her soulful paintings, she once again delivers a powerful collection utilizing landscape, birds of prey and other wildlife to depict and remind all, the concept and importance of home on a global level. The exhibition opens during Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk, Saturday July 12 from noon – 8 pm. Rowland will be at the gallery from 5 - 8 pm that evening and available to answer questions about her work. The exhibition will remain on view through August 4.
Since childhood, Rowland has looked to the natural world to find order. Her existential take on the world forges a path to understanding through her emotive paintings, etched in nuance of contemplation. Placing focus on the wild, she gives voice to landscape and its inhabitants, spending countless hours of observation studying dramatic shifts of light, echoing through the walls of land carved out eons ago by geological sculpting. Her portraiture of raptors, equally compelling, act as totems to a profound sense of spirituality, offering a prayer of hope for all inhabitants to this place called home.
Rowland, who deems land and its inhabitants as spiritual guides, is a practiced and keen observer of nature. Once back in the studio, she infuses her dreamlike impressions to surface, allowing wildlife to emerge from background, coming forward as if to offer itself as shaman, providing comfort and strength. With subtle nuance of brush stroke, she crafts composition lending to the mysticism of landscape and animals she honors. Within this series, Rowland allows herself to go deeper into identity of what “home” is, defining space by intuition of what cannot be held, only felt. About this series she writes with honesty about her intuitive process and the concept of “home.” She states, “In creating a painting, I am searching for some kind of truth or truths to emerge in the interplay of feeling, remembering, witnessing, and paying attention. Whether a painting becomes a Red-Tail’s gaze or an imagined dream life of a mountain, the process involves conscious consideration as well as openness to the unbidden. I may not recognize what emerges – whether it is a painting gone astray or the beginning of something I didn’t know I knew or could express, the outcome is an opportunity to feel connected. My hope is that, in the midst of it all, we find openings with our senses and our hearts to revere what is our shared home.”
Some art enthusiasts may notice a subtle shift within this series, what is earth but a home. Bethany seems to carefully embrace the power of surrounding atmospheric quality. Much like the great painter J.M.W. Turner, she brings motion to life through unseen current and light quality, lending to the period of the romanticism movement of the late 18th century. The historic feel and quality of this series is delicately balanced with the drama of contemporary painting.
Rowland, who has been painting for over 25 years handles her medium, style and subject matter with unabashed confidence, carefully cultivating imagery that is a beautiful and evocative marriage of representation and abstraction. Combining quiet corners of complex layers of sheer color with definitive mark and gesture, she conveys emotion, a hint of melancholy, comfort, and acceptance within each composition. She readily cites such artists as Phil Sylvester of The Drawing Studio in Portland, OR as well as others including Andrea Schwartz-Feit, William Park and Royal Nebeker for giving her the courage to trust her own intuition in her practice. She understands form and allows herself freedom to explore the nuance of posture through the discipline of painting the human figure. Her figurative work has been juried into Clatsop Community College’s annual Au Naturel: The Nude in the 21st Century, for multiple exhibitions throughout its history. Her work is regularly included in the annual Sitka Art Invitational as well as the juried annual Cascade Aids Project art auction.
what is earth but a home
New Paintings by Bethany Rowland
For July we are proud to be presenting a new series of paintings by Bethany Rowland who returns to Imogen Gallery for her seventh solo exhibition, “what is earth but a home.” Known for her soulful paintings, she once again delivers a powerful collection utilizing landscape, birds of prey and other wildlife to depict and remind all, the concept and importance of home on a global level. The exhibition opens during Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk, Saturday July 12 from noon – 8 pm. Rowland will be at the gallery from 5 - 8 pm that evening and available to answer questions about her work. The exhibition will remain on view through August 4.
Since childhood, Rowland has looked to the natural world to find order. Her existential take on the world forges a path to understanding through her emotive paintings, etched in nuance of contemplation. Placing focus on the wild, she gives voice to landscape and its inhabitants, spending countless hours of observation studying dramatic shifts of light, echoing through the walls of land carved out eons ago by geological sculpting. Her portraiture of raptors, equally compelling, act as totems to a profound sense of spirituality, offering a prayer of hope for all inhabitants to this place called home.
Rowland, who deems land and its inhabitants as spiritual guides, is a practiced and keen observer of nature. Once back in the studio, she infuses her dreamlike impressions to surface, allowing wildlife to emerge from background, coming forward as if to offer itself as shaman, providing comfort and strength. With subtle nuance of brush stroke, she crafts composition lending to the mysticism of landscape and animals she honors. Within this series, Rowland allows herself to go deeper into identity of what “home” is, defining space by intuition of what cannot be held, only felt. About this series she writes with honesty about her intuitive process and the concept of “home.” She states, “In creating a painting, I am searching for some kind of truth or truths to emerge in the interplay of feeling, remembering, witnessing, and paying attention. Whether a painting becomes a Red-Tail’s gaze or an imagined dream life of a mountain, the process involves conscious consideration as well as openness to the unbidden. I may not recognize what emerges – whether it is a painting gone astray or the beginning of something I didn’t know I knew or could express, the outcome is an opportunity to feel connected. My hope is that, in the midst of it all, we find openings with our senses and our hearts to revere what is our shared home.”
Some art enthusiasts may notice a subtle shift within this series, what is earth but a home. Bethany seems to carefully embrace the power of surrounding atmospheric quality. Much like the great painter J.M.W. Turner, she brings motion to life through unseen current and light quality, lending to the period of the romanticism movement of the late 18th century. The historic feel and quality of this series is delicately balanced with the drama of contemporary painting.
Rowland, who has been painting for over 25 years handles her medium, style and subject matter with unabashed confidence, carefully cultivating imagery that is a beautiful and evocative marriage of representation and abstraction. Combining quiet corners of complex layers of sheer color with definitive mark and gesture, she conveys emotion, a hint of melancholy, comfort, and acceptance within each composition. She readily cites such artists as Phil Sylvester of The Drawing Studio in Portland, OR as well as others including Andrea Schwartz-Feit, William Park and Royal Nebeker for giving her the courage to trust her own intuition in her practice. She understands form and allows herself freedom to explore the nuance of posture through the discipline of painting the human figure. Her figurative work has been juried into Clatsop Community College’s annual Au Naturel: The Nude in the 21st Century, for multiple exhibitions throughout its history. Her work is regularly included in the annual Sitka Art Invitational as well as the juried annual Cascade Aids Project art auction.
June 2025 Exhibit
Stan Peterson
Stories Worth Remembering
We are thrilled to welcome Stan Peterson back for his fourth solo exhibition at Imogen. He brings a new series of his delightful carved and painted wood sculpture and paintings. Within this new collection, Stories Worth Remembering, Peterson takes us along for a journey through storytelling. Join us for ArtWalk June 14, 5 – 8 pm and have a chat with Stan, he will have many remarkable stories to share about his work and experiences. The exhibition will be on display through July 7.
As an artist who delights in storytelling, Peterson has created yet another fantastical body of work still based on the figurative, whether it be a hybrid creature of his brilliant imagination or a more literal depiction of birds, dogs, horses or human figure, each piece always lends to story. For this series, Peterson, who appreciates a good tale as much as he does telling one, considers the symbiotic relationships between human and animal kind, through his upbeat and whimsical wood sculpture and paintings that participate in the storytelling process.
Within his woodcarving and painting process, he narrates stories told to him as well as from his own experiences, creating compelling imagery through thoughtful use of form and color. His love of nature and its creatures become the focal point of his work, with depictions of a shared sense of compassion and kindness between man and animal. This series, intended as a thoughtful look at those unique relationships that do not rely on verbal dialogue, instead a simple appreciation for the other conveyed by connection though gaze, and/or an extended hand of trust. These fascinating bonds convey peace, understanding and appreciation for the other. Simply said, Peterson’s work is a collection of life stories, observations, and honoring acts of kindness.
When asked about this series and his process, he refers to his “recipe” for creating a body of work for an exhibition. Here’s how that goes, beginning with the gathering of all things necessary within his step-by-step process. “Ingredients: Basswood Carving tools Canvas Acrylic paints. Take a lot of walks, preferably in open spaces (look for figures and animals from a distance). Take note of the light (look for sky magic)! Pay casual attention to all around you. Use your peripheral vision. Remember those moments where you feel very Alive. Sit down in the evening and sketch a memory. Repeat all of the above. Let some time go by… When a memory or a sketch keeps nudging, go to the studio. Draw on planks of basswood and saw out shapes on the bandsaw. Begin hand carving at the bench by a window. Rest your eyes by looking at the garden, some goldfinches splashing in the birdbath. Keep carving. Glance at the unfinished painting on the easel. Keep carving. Mix some paint and add a layer of color to the painting. Wonder where the hours went. Keep carving. Repeat all of the above. Two years later serve up a show of carved wood sculptures and paintings.
Peterson, a self-taught artist has been exhibiting his narrative and figurative sculpture since the 1980’s and has long utilized animal form as a vehicle to explore human interaction and connection. As a retired postal carrier, walking is something he has always enjoyed, whether it be the city streets or remote beaches; long sidewalks give way to stretches of beach where he can observe both domestic and wild animals and where his source of inspiration begins. These elements give him the time and space for introspection of daily experience and random encounters that quite often become center stage in his finished work.
Peterson has enjoyed a remarkable career as an artist, exhibiting his work from the west coast to as far away as New York and Paris with collectors in all points in between. He has been a featured artist on the much-loved OPB Art Beat program and written about in PDX Magazine. He has enjoyed several artist’s residencies over the years including an award of an individual artist’s grant from the William T. Colville Foundation to travel to Bali for “Arts in Bali” where he worked with a traditional Balinese mask carver. He has also enjoyed two residencies at the famed Ghost Ranch in Taos, New Mexico.
Stan Peterson
Stories Worth Remembering
We are thrilled to welcome Stan Peterson back for his fourth solo exhibition at Imogen. He brings a new series of his delightful carved and painted wood sculpture and paintings. Within this new collection, Stories Worth Remembering, Peterson takes us along for a journey through storytelling. Join us for ArtWalk June 14, 5 – 8 pm and have a chat with Stan, he will have many remarkable stories to share about his work and experiences. The exhibition will be on display through July 7.
As an artist who delights in storytelling, Peterson has created yet another fantastical body of work still based on the figurative, whether it be a hybrid creature of his brilliant imagination or a more literal depiction of birds, dogs, horses or human figure, each piece always lends to story. For this series, Peterson, who appreciates a good tale as much as he does telling one, considers the symbiotic relationships between human and animal kind, through his upbeat and whimsical wood sculpture and paintings that participate in the storytelling process.
Within his woodcarving and painting process, he narrates stories told to him as well as from his own experiences, creating compelling imagery through thoughtful use of form and color. His love of nature and its creatures become the focal point of his work, with depictions of a shared sense of compassion and kindness between man and animal. This series, intended as a thoughtful look at those unique relationships that do not rely on verbal dialogue, instead a simple appreciation for the other conveyed by connection though gaze, and/or an extended hand of trust. These fascinating bonds convey peace, understanding and appreciation for the other. Simply said, Peterson’s work is a collection of life stories, observations, and honoring acts of kindness.
When asked about this series and his process, he refers to his “recipe” for creating a body of work for an exhibition. Here’s how that goes, beginning with the gathering of all things necessary within his step-by-step process. “Ingredients: Basswood Carving tools Canvas Acrylic paints. Take a lot of walks, preferably in open spaces (look for figures and animals from a distance). Take note of the light (look for sky magic)! Pay casual attention to all around you. Use your peripheral vision. Remember those moments where you feel very Alive. Sit down in the evening and sketch a memory. Repeat all of the above. Let some time go by… When a memory or a sketch keeps nudging, go to the studio. Draw on planks of basswood and saw out shapes on the bandsaw. Begin hand carving at the bench by a window. Rest your eyes by looking at the garden, some goldfinches splashing in the birdbath. Keep carving. Glance at the unfinished painting on the easel. Keep carving. Mix some paint and add a layer of color to the painting. Wonder where the hours went. Keep carving. Repeat all of the above. Two years later serve up a show of carved wood sculptures and paintings.
Peterson, a self-taught artist has been exhibiting his narrative and figurative sculpture since the 1980’s and has long utilized animal form as a vehicle to explore human interaction and connection. As a retired postal carrier, walking is something he has always enjoyed, whether it be the city streets or remote beaches; long sidewalks give way to stretches of beach where he can observe both domestic and wild animals and where his source of inspiration begins. These elements give him the time and space for introspection of daily experience and random encounters that quite often become center stage in his finished work.
Peterson has enjoyed a remarkable career as an artist, exhibiting his work from the west coast to as far away as New York and Paris with collectors in all points in between. He has been a featured artist on the much-loved OPB Art Beat program and written about in PDX Magazine. He has enjoyed several artist’s residencies over the years including an award of an individual artist’s grant from the William T. Colville Foundation to travel to Bali for “Arts in Bali” where he worked with a traditional Balinese mask carver. He has also enjoyed two residencies at the famed Ghost Ranch in Taos, New Mexico.
May 2025 Exhibit
Imogen Gallery
Mark Andres The Garden of Love
Deb Stoner Who’s Going to Backup Your Digital Life?
May 10 – June 5
We are honored to present two exquisite exhibitions bringing the beauty of the garden, by two iconic Portland artists. In our South Gallery space, we welcome Mark Andres with a new series of floral paintings, The Garden of Love. In our front gallery we are honored to present a fourth solo exhibition for photographer Deb Stoner. She brings Who’s Going to Backup Your Digital Life?, an elegant series of black and white photographic still life prints. Both shows open during Astoria’s Artwalk, Saturday, May 10th, 12 – 8 pm. Mark Andres and Deb Stoner will both be at the gallery during artwalk, from 5 – 8 pm, that day, please stop by and say hello. The exhibitions will remain on view through June 9th.
In our South Gallery, we are proud to be hosting a powerful solo exhibition for the highly respected painter Mark Andres. Known for his plein aire paintings of both Portland and Astoria, the two cities he knows and loves, Andres shifts his focus to studio work, creating a rich series of still life paintings. The nuance of a simple bouquet of flowers can take on the expression of many things. Andres brings imagery, packed with stunning use of color and composition exploring the essence of sentiment.
Andres’ work, both as a painter and a film maker, provide a visual richness and intimacy through shared memory and imprint of emotive qualities. For Andres, this series dedicated to flowers is about paying homage to a genre that in contemporary times of fast paced clicks and scrolling, seems to have been overlooked. Vases as well-crafted as the blossoms they hold, express the tenderness of love, hope, sorrow and even forgiveness.
About these paintings he provides a list of 12 reasons why he paints flowers. From his list he narrates his approach, “Reason #2: Flowers resist being meaning. They can be told to stand for chastity, charity, passion, disdain, folly, flattery, friendship or forbearance, but flowers shake off all these meanings as easily as Aphrodite shaking off water, emerging naked from the Aegean.” And “Reason #12: Mother planted the seeds of my art education when I was a child, but her seeds did not flower until I had reached 65 when I began this series of paintings. After stupidly dismissing floral painting as a genre, I received my comeuppance late in life in the form of happiness. Happiness, just like a flower, blooms only for a short time, but its beauty leaves a big impression behind, promising the possibility of a return. Mother, like her lilac cuttings, played the long game.”
Andres who has been painting for some 40 years has enjoyed a career as both artist and educator. He has exhibited his work extensively on both the east and west coasts, with his work included to the permanent collections of the Portland Art Museum, the Hallie Ford Museum, the Mary Hill Museum as well as being included to many private and corporate collections.
We are also excited to welcome back Deb Stoner who brings a new series of still life black and white photographs titled Who’s Going to Backup Your Digital Life?. This series, unique to Stoner who is known for her carefully constructed botanical still life compositions, reminiscent of the great Dutch master’s paintings, is a departure. She found herself thinking about the lost work of the early great photographers, their glass negatives, and how that related to her own work. This led her to begin work on printing her early film work from some 40 plus years ago. She carefully selected the negatives and slides she felt were the most important with great thought given to the beauty of the “negative” itself. This series is a culmination of that project.
About this series she states: “I thought about the utter confusion of learning how to read a negative when I first started printing black and white photographs over forty years ago. And then one day, I was able to “see” the negative without effort, and I thought it was beautiful. So it came to be that this work, created by finding good compositions within my much larger still life photographs, became a way for me to explore the literal positive and negative images and the shapes created by combining the opposite images.”
Deb Stoner holds an MFA in Applied Design from SDSU, a BS in Geology from UC Davis, and a decades long teaching career at the former Oregon College of Art and Craft. She has been a guest lecturer at the Portland Art Museum, and had her work selected from an international call for artists in 2019 to do a building wrap of the Palos Verdes Art Center in Los Angeles. Her botanical work enshrined the Center throughout 2020. Stoner has juried purchases in the permanent public art collections at University of Oregon, OHSU, PCC, and the Portland International Airport, and is the recipient of numerous grants and residencies while selling her work to enthusiastic collectors around the world.
Imogen Gallery
Mark Andres The Garden of Love
Deb Stoner Who’s Going to Backup Your Digital Life?
May 10 – June 5
We are honored to present two exquisite exhibitions bringing the beauty of the garden, by two iconic Portland artists. In our South Gallery space, we welcome Mark Andres with a new series of floral paintings, The Garden of Love. In our front gallery we are honored to present a fourth solo exhibition for photographer Deb Stoner. She brings Who’s Going to Backup Your Digital Life?, an elegant series of black and white photographic still life prints. Both shows open during Astoria’s Artwalk, Saturday, May 10th, 12 – 8 pm. Mark Andres and Deb Stoner will both be at the gallery during artwalk, from 5 – 8 pm, that day, please stop by and say hello. The exhibitions will remain on view through June 9th.
In our South Gallery, we are proud to be hosting a powerful solo exhibition for the highly respected painter Mark Andres. Known for his plein aire paintings of both Portland and Astoria, the two cities he knows and loves, Andres shifts his focus to studio work, creating a rich series of still life paintings. The nuance of a simple bouquet of flowers can take on the expression of many things. Andres brings imagery, packed with stunning use of color and composition exploring the essence of sentiment.
Andres’ work, both as a painter and a film maker, provide a visual richness and intimacy through shared memory and imprint of emotive qualities. For Andres, this series dedicated to flowers is about paying homage to a genre that in contemporary times of fast paced clicks and scrolling, seems to have been overlooked. Vases as well-crafted as the blossoms they hold, express the tenderness of love, hope, sorrow and even forgiveness.
About these paintings he provides a list of 12 reasons why he paints flowers. From his list he narrates his approach, “Reason #2: Flowers resist being meaning. They can be told to stand for chastity, charity, passion, disdain, folly, flattery, friendship or forbearance, but flowers shake off all these meanings as easily as Aphrodite shaking off water, emerging naked from the Aegean.” And “Reason #12: Mother planted the seeds of my art education when I was a child, but her seeds did not flower until I had reached 65 when I began this series of paintings. After stupidly dismissing floral painting as a genre, I received my comeuppance late in life in the form of happiness. Happiness, just like a flower, blooms only for a short time, but its beauty leaves a big impression behind, promising the possibility of a return. Mother, like her lilac cuttings, played the long game.”
Andres who has been painting for some 40 years has enjoyed a career as both artist and educator. He has exhibited his work extensively on both the east and west coasts, with his work included to the permanent collections of the Portland Art Museum, the Hallie Ford Museum, the Mary Hill Museum as well as being included to many private and corporate collections.
We are also excited to welcome back Deb Stoner who brings a new series of still life black and white photographs titled Who’s Going to Backup Your Digital Life?. This series, unique to Stoner who is known for her carefully constructed botanical still life compositions, reminiscent of the great Dutch master’s paintings, is a departure. She found herself thinking about the lost work of the early great photographers, their glass negatives, and how that related to her own work. This led her to begin work on printing her early film work from some 40 plus years ago. She carefully selected the negatives and slides she felt were the most important with great thought given to the beauty of the “negative” itself. This series is a culmination of that project.
About this series she states: “I thought about the utter confusion of learning how to read a negative when I first started printing black and white photographs over forty years ago. And then one day, I was able to “see” the negative without effort, and I thought it was beautiful. So it came to be that this work, created by finding good compositions within my much larger still life photographs, became a way for me to explore the literal positive and negative images and the shapes created by combining the opposite images.”
Deb Stoner holds an MFA in Applied Design from SDSU, a BS in Geology from UC Davis, and a decades long teaching career at the former Oregon College of Art and Craft. She has been a guest lecturer at the Portland Art Museum, and had her work selected from an international call for artists in 2019 to do a building wrap of the Palos Verdes Art Center in Los Angeles. Her botanical work enshrined the Center throughout 2020. Stoner has juried purchases in the permanent public art collections at University of Oregon, OHSU, PCC, and the Portland International Airport, and is the recipient of numerous grants and residencies while selling her work to enthusiastic collectors around the world.
April 2025 Exhibit
April Coppini
Little Bright Spots, Big Migrations
April 12 – May 5
We are excited to welcome back April Coppini with her latest series of charcoal drawings, this time leaning heavily into the addition of color through pastel. Known for her passionate interest in all creatures and their importance to place, she brings a new collection of gorgeously rendered drawings. Through elegant and expressive mark making she portrays the wild, unseen, and unexpected in her depictions of flora and fauna. Little Bright Spots, Big Migrations opens April 12th during Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk, Saturday 12 – 8 pm. The exhibition will remain on view through May 5th.
In a time of uncertainty, whether it’s from a personal perspective or a broader global reach, there is one thing that does remain certain; art is a necessity in our lives, yesterday, today and tomorrow. Regardless of all, including what their own lives contain, artists always continue to paint, sculpt, write and perform to communicate, providing a gift of reprieve to all. Artists have always been generous in what they do, whether it is to connect what is good about humanity or record an imprint of challenging times. They create and share with the goal of easing burden, fear, and struggle; to uplift and bring peace to the unknown and even aiding in the comprehension of matters out of one’s control. It is with this in mind that Coppini has created another exceptional body of work, considering her own life experiences and how that relates to the broader world.
Within this series she continues to portray a focused record in her subject matter, the simple struggle of existence. A slight tension of muscle before a possible leap, or the look of pensive awareness in preparation for escape from a possible predator, are all elegantly conveyed through beautiful and gestural mark making. With the underlying message of the importance of all creatures and their independent role to ecosystem and/or as pollinators, predators, scavengers or even domesticated animals, Coppini asks the viewer to consider the role our species takes (or doesn’t) in protecting the delicate relationship between mankind and animal as well as a direct reminder of our symbiotic relationship to all life on a global level. There is also the underlying reminder of appreciating what is good, those moments that take us away from the stress of day to day life, in turn providing a sense of strength and resilience.
This time of year is indicative of offering the sense of hope, renewal and growth. With new growth comes the return of color to our landscape, the sound of songbirds gently pulling the planet from slumber and the soft scent of new bloom of buds, providing the fragrance for the orchestra called Spring. Coppini, who tends to focus primarily on charcoal for her chosen medium has placed more focus on color within this series. Still relying on the starkness of charcoal line to develop the foundation of her drawings, she softens her compositions with the introduction of vibrant and rich color that provide more than a visual response. She looks for balance within each piece, both from a compositional source as well as nuance of content to honor simple beauty, elegance and sense of hope.
About this series Coppini states writes, “I hear the news lately and I want to go lay my face in the lush spring grass, overgrown and cool, damp. And also I wake up every day to the absolute victory of seeing my once severely disabled kiddo walk around, laugh, sing, make coffee.
We are inextricably linked to what has come before us and what will come after us.
We all walk on the same ground; we all live, will struggle and will die.
All at once we have these little spots of brilliance, ground level stuff- microcosms in a fleeting moment, and also part of an epic story in which all our brightness threads through, inextinguishable. This is us: hungry, laughing, angry, helpless, hurting, playing, resting…
Seeing the wonder, feeling the rumble in the ground.”
April Coppini
Little Bright Spots, Big Migrations
April 12 – May 5
We are excited to welcome back April Coppini with her latest series of charcoal drawings, this time leaning heavily into the addition of color through pastel. Known for her passionate interest in all creatures and their importance to place, she brings a new collection of gorgeously rendered drawings. Through elegant and expressive mark making she portrays the wild, unseen, and unexpected in her depictions of flora and fauna. Little Bright Spots, Big Migrations opens April 12th during Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk, Saturday 12 – 8 pm. The exhibition will remain on view through May 5th.
In a time of uncertainty, whether it’s from a personal perspective or a broader global reach, there is one thing that does remain certain; art is a necessity in our lives, yesterday, today and tomorrow. Regardless of all, including what their own lives contain, artists always continue to paint, sculpt, write and perform to communicate, providing a gift of reprieve to all. Artists have always been generous in what they do, whether it is to connect what is good about humanity or record an imprint of challenging times. They create and share with the goal of easing burden, fear, and struggle; to uplift and bring peace to the unknown and even aiding in the comprehension of matters out of one’s control. It is with this in mind that Coppini has created another exceptional body of work, considering her own life experiences and how that relates to the broader world.
Within this series she continues to portray a focused record in her subject matter, the simple struggle of existence. A slight tension of muscle before a possible leap, or the look of pensive awareness in preparation for escape from a possible predator, are all elegantly conveyed through beautiful and gestural mark making. With the underlying message of the importance of all creatures and their independent role to ecosystem and/or as pollinators, predators, scavengers or even domesticated animals, Coppini asks the viewer to consider the role our species takes (or doesn’t) in protecting the delicate relationship between mankind and animal as well as a direct reminder of our symbiotic relationship to all life on a global level. There is also the underlying reminder of appreciating what is good, those moments that take us away from the stress of day to day life, in turn providing a sense of strength and resilience.
This time of year is indicative of offering the sense of hope, renewal and growth. With new growth comes the return of color to our landscape, the sound of songbirds gently pulling the planet from slumber and the soft scent of new bloom of buds, providing the fragrance for the orchestra called Spring. Coppini, who tends to focus primarily on charcoal for her chosen medium has placed more focus on color within this series. Still relying on the starkness of charcoal line to develop the foundation of her drawings, she softens her compositions with the introduction of vibrant and rich color that provide more than a visual response. She looks for balance within each piece, both from a compositional source as well as nuance of content to honor simple beauty, elegance and sense of hope.
About this series Coppini states writes, “I hear the news lately and I want to go lay my face in the lush spring grass, overgrown and cool, damp. And also I wake up every day to the absolute victory of seeing my once severely disabled kiddo walk around, laugh, sing, make coffee.
We are inextricably linked to what has come before us and what will come after us.
We all walk on the same ground; we all live, will struggle and will die.
All at once we have these little spots of brilliance, ground level stuff- microcosms in a fleeting moment, and also part of an epic story in which all our brightness threads through, inextinguishable. This is us: hungry, laughing, angry, helpless, hurting, playing, resting…
Seeing the wonder, feeling the rumble in the ground.”
